ArticleEnvironmental microbiology2023
Is biofilm formation intrinsic to the origin of life?
Article in Environmental microbiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Crosslinked agarose-gelatine beads as a substrate for investigating biofilms of bacterial pathogens.Biofilm · 2026Article
- Mind Everywhere: A Framework for Conceptualizing Goal-Directedness in Biology and Other Domains-Part Two.Biological theory · 2026Article
- Spatial and functional differentiation of microbial biofilms in a traditional cheese ripening environment.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- An astrobiological perspective on microbial biofilms: their importance for habitability and production of detectable and lasting biosignatures.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Review
- Soft X-ray tomography reveals variations in B. subtilis biofilm structure upon tasA deletion.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Rapid Stiffness Mapping in Soft Biologic Tissues With Micrometer Resolution Using Optical Multifrequency Time-Harmonic Elastography.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Impact and applications of cyclic di-GMP second messenger signaling in biotechnology and medicine.Sustainable microbiology · 2025Review
- Hidden Places for Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens and Novel Approaches to Control Biofilms in the Meat Industry.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Conformational change as a mechanism for toxin activation in bacterial toxin-antitoxin systems.Journal of virology · 2024Review
- Architecture, Function, Regulation, and Evolution of α-Glucans Metabolic Enzymes in Prokaryotes.Chemical reviews · 2024Review
- New Strategies to Kill Metabolically-Dormant Cells Directly Bypassing the Need for Active Cellular Processes.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Evolution of cyclic di-GMP signalling on a short and long term time scale.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2023Article
- Is biofilm formation intrinsic to the origin of life?Environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Polyhexamethylene biguanide promotes adaptive cross-resistance to gentamicin inFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Article
- A self-sustaining serpentinization mega-engine feeds the fougerite nanoengines implicated in the emergence of guided metabolism.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Biofilms are multicellular, often surface-associated, communities of autonomous cells. Their formation is the natural mode of growth of up to 80% of microorganisms living on this planet. Biofilms refractory towards antimicrobial agents and the actions of the immune system due to their tolerance against multiple environmental stresses. But how did biofilm formation arise? Here, I argue that the biofilm lifestyle has its foundation already in the fundamental, surface-triggered chemical reactions and energy preserving mechanisms that enabled the development of life on earth. Subsequently, prototypical biofilm formation has evolved and diversified concomitantly in composition, cell morphology and regulation with the expansion of prokaryotic organisms and their radiation by occupation of diverse ecological niches. This ancient origin of biofilm formation thus mirrors the harnessing environmental conditions that have been the rule rather than the exception in microbial life. The subsequent emergence of the association of microbes, including recent human pathogens, with higher organisms can be considered as the entry into a nutritional and largely stress-protecting heaven. Nevertheless, basic mechanisms of biofilm formation have surprisingly been conserved and refunctionalized to promote sustained survival in new environments.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.